FJC
Member
I finally got to the range today to try out my new P-3AT .380 that I picked up last Friday.
If you're not familiar with these pistols, they're tiny, inexpensive (some would say "cheap") pocket pistols. They sell at a street price of around $230. I had some concerns about how it would perform, as recent threads on this and other forums have been mixed, with people practically coming to blows about these little pistols.
Loaded with 6+1 rounds of .380, it's only around 10 ounces, and is small/thin (thinner than my cell phone, as these pics show).
These have a reputation of running a little roughly until a little time is spent "fluffing and buffing." So, since I had a few days before I coult take it to the range, I sat down and spent about 30 minutes on it. Basically, I cleaned up any obvious burrs, polished the slide/hammer interface, and polished up the feedramp/chamber. That I did with nothing more than Q-tips and a little Mother's Mag & Wheel polish.
I took it to the range today with a bunch of different ammo to try. In a nutshell, it did a fantastic job, with only a few problems with ONE type of ammo. Here's how each did. Note, for these tests, I used the same magazine for all firing (the only one I have). All were fired at 7 yards. Most were two-hand holds, though I did fire some rounds one-handed both right and left handed.
Federal American Eagle 95gr FMJ
I fired a total of 50 rounds of this ammo, it ran flawlessly. Half was at the beginning of the range session, the other half at the very end. Fed and ejected fine, and was fairly accurate, though seemed to shoot a bit low for me (an inch or so at 7 yards).
Winchester SilverTips 90gr JHP
I only had 17 rounds of this ammo - it all fed perfectly, and was quite accurate out of the little P-3AT.
Winchester "White Box" FMJ Flat-tip
These truncated-cone/flat tip's are problematic in some pistols, but the P-3AT had no problems with them at all, though I only had 15 rounds of this on hand to try.
Remington Golden Saber 102gr JHP
The ONLY failures I had with this pistol were ALL with this ammo. Early in my testing, after only 25 rounds of other ammo through the P-3AT, I decided to try a magazine of these. I loaded up 7 rounds (6 in mag, 1 in chamber). Fired the first round and immediately had a failure to feed. The round seemed low on the feed ramp, but a little push on the slide pushed the round up into the chamber and returned the pistol to battery. This happened again on the next two shots. After that, I decided to move on to other ammo. Later, I fired another string of 5 Golden Sabers, this time with no failures. Even later, I fired another 8 rounds, and had one more failure similar to above. Also, recoil was snappy with these rounds, maybe because they are heavier than most at 102gr. I found the pistol twisting in my grip on these rounds only, whereas it was rock-solid in my hand for all other ammo.
Fiocchi 95gr FMJ
I expected these to do well, since I'm told this is what Kel-Tec uses to test the pistols with at the factory. I was not disappointed. I fired 48 rounds of this, with NO problems whatsoever. I expected recoil to be snappy, as these are reportedly hotter than other FMJ loads (1000fps vs most other manufacturers quotes of 950-960fps), but they seemed to be about the same. Accuracy was excellent (see picture below).
So, in summary, out of 150 rounds I had 4 failures to feed - all occuring during 20 rounds of Remington Golden Saber. ZERO failures with all the other ammo I tried today (130 rounds worth).
Here's this pistol, dirty after those 150 rounds were fired. The grouping shown measures just about 1", and was fired at 7 yards, using Fiocchi FMJ.
I fired a magazine through my Walther PPK/s for comparison, and I honestly don't think the recoil was any worse out of the P-3AT than it was in the much heavier PPK/s.
After all those rounds, I found the web of my right hand was a bit irritated, but no blood drawn. My finger was fine as well. Overall, it was pretty comfortable to shoot despite the size.
So, time to clean it up, get some more Fiocchi (I think I'm going to stick with FMJ with this pistol, with winter coming up), put another 100 or so of that through it, then I'll consider it ready for carry. And here's what it'll ride in - a great Hedley pocket holster.
This will be my carry-when-I-can't-carry-anything-bigger pistol. I generally like to carry a Colt Commander .45 ACP, but there are times when that's just too much gun to conceal easily. This will make a nice slip-in-the-pocket pistol for those times. Heck, the darned thing is only 10 ounces fully loaded!
If you're not familiar with these pistols, they're tiny, inexpensive (some would say "cheap") pocket pistols. They sell at a street price of around $230. I had some concerns about how it would perform, as recent threads on this and other forums have been mixed, with people practically coming to blows about these little pistols.
Loaded with 6+1 rounds of .380, it's only around 10 ounces, and is small/thin (thinner than my cell phone, as these pics show).
These have a reputation of running a little roughly until a little time is spent "fluffing and buffing." So, since I had a few days before I coult take it to the range, I sat down and spent about 30 minutes on it. Basically, I cleaned up any obvious burrs, polished the slide/hammer interface, and polished up the feedramp/chamber. That I did with nothing more than Q-tips and a little Mother's Mag & Wheel polish.
I took it to the range today with a bunch of different ammo to try. In a nutshell, it did a fantastic job, with only a few problems with ONE type of ammo. Here's how each did. Note, for these tests, I used the same magazine for all firing (the only one I have). All were fired at 7 yards. Most were two-hand holds, though I did fire some rounds one-handed both right and left handed.
Federal American Eagle 95gr FMJ
I fired a total of 50 rounds of this ammo, it ran flawlessly. Half was at the beginning of the range session, the other half at the very end. Fed and ejected fine, and was fairly accurate, though seemed to shoot a bit low for me (an inch or so at 7 yards).
Winchester SilverTips 90gr JHP
I only had 17 rounds of this ammo - it all fed perfectly, and was quite accurate out of the little P-3AT.
Winchester "White Box" FMJ Flat-tip
These truncated-cone/flat tip's are problematic in some pistols, but the P-3AT had no problems with them at all, though I only had 15 rounds of this on hand to try.
Remington Golden Saber 102gr JHP
The ONLY failures I had with this pistol were ALL with this ammo. Early in my testing, after only 25 rounds of other ammo through the P-3AT, I decided to try a magazine of these. I loaded up 7 rounds (6 in mag, 1 in chamber). Fired the first round and immediately had a failure to feed. The round seemed low on the feed ramp, but a little push on the slide pushed the round up into the chamber and returned the pistol to battery. This happened again on the next two shots. After that, I decided to move on to other ammo. Later, I fired another string of 5 Golden Sabers, this time with no failures. Even later, I fired another 8 rounds, and had one more failure similar to above. Also, recoil was snappy with these rounds, maybe because they are heavier than most at 102gr. I found the pistol twisting in my grip on these rounds only, whereas it was rock-solid in my hand for all other ammo.
Fiocchi 95gr FMJ
I expected these to do well, since I'm told this is what Kel-Tec uses to test the pistols with at the factory. I was not disappointed. I fired 48 rounds of this, with NO problems whatsoever. I expected recoil to be snappy, as these are reportedly hotter than other FMJ loads (1000fps vs most other manufacturers quotes of 950-960fps), but they seemed to be about the same. Accuracy was excellent (see picture below).
So, in summary, out of 150 rounds I had 4 failures to feed - all occuring during 20 rounds of Remington Golden Saber. ZERO failures with all the other ammo I tried today (130 rounds worth).
Here's this pistol, dirty after those 150 rounds were fired. The grouping shown measures just about 1", and was fired at 7 yards, using Fiocchi FMJ.
I fired a magazine through my Walther PPK/s for comparison, and I honestly don't think the recoil was any worse out of the P-3AT than it was in the much heavier PPK/s.
After all those rounds, I found the web of my right hand was a bit irritated, but no blood drawn. My finger was fine as well. Overall, it was pretty comfortable to shoot despite the size.
So, time to clean it up, get some more Fiocchi (I think I'm going to stick with FMJ with this pistol, with winter coming up), put another 100 or so of that through it, then I'll consider it ready for carry. And here's what it'll ride in - a great Hedley pocket holster.
This will be my carry-when-I-can't-carry-anything-bigger pistol. I generally like to carry a Colt Commander .45 ACP, but there are times when that's just too much gun to conceal easily. This will make a nice slip-in-the-pocket pistol for those times. Heck, the darned thing is only 10 ounces fully loaded!
